HARARE, February 15. /TASS/. Nigeria should join BRICS, which would allow the country, Africa's leading oil exporter, to sell oil not for dollars, but for naira and thereby strengthen its national currency, said Nigerian politician and human rights activist Femi Falana.
"There are countries in the world today insisting that we are not going to be tied to the American dollars and those countries are in the BRICS - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa," the politician said in his appeal to the federal government of Nigeria as quoted by the Vanguard newspaper.
"Others are joining them; Saudi Arabia has joined them. UAE, Ethiopia, Egypt and all that. We cannot be more Catholic than the Pope. If friends of the West are joining BRICS, why are we not there? So that we can trade in naira," he added.
Falana recalled that Nigeria's Vice President Kashim Shettima attended the 15th BRICS summit, where he stated that Abuja has not applied to join the economic bloc considered to be a counterweight to western powers like the United States, the newspaper wrote.
According to Falana, it is time for Nigeria to join BRICS to help the naira. The instructions of the country's Central Bank alone will not solve problems with foreign currency.
"If I had my way, my own radical policy would be that: I would sell Nigerian gas and crude oil in naira. Let those who want to buy our products look for naira. That is how to promote your currency. "But this business of everybody looking for dollars even to pay school fees, rent houses, and sell houses. It doesn’t happen unless you dollarize your economy. These are the issues the government would have to address to come out of this economic doldrums," Felana said.
Falana also advocated reducing Nigeria's dependence on the economic dictates of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.